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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2022 16:34:57 GMT -5
1. NIL - I hate to admit I was so dead wrong about this .. but after further review this allows to seriously compete for top athletes that can topple FCS conferences and many mid major FBS conferences. Ain’t no way the likes of Troy Coastal Carolina Kent St etc can even come close to our viewership and attendance nor do they have the capacity to. The secret is out and the numbers don’t lie. The HBCU 80 year culture will not only get us there it will be enough to sustain us. How do we transform HBCU culture into tangible dollars? IMHO, we'll need buy-in from a sizable chunk of White America, ironically enough, and increased interest from Black Women. Depending on Black Men financially to prop this up will not be enough.
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Post by Bornthrilla on Feb 28, 2022 16:46:41 GMT -5
The first part of your sentence is concerning to me. That sounds like you are suggesting we become Mr. Bojangles ... and I'm not talking about the fast food chain.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2022 16:54:26 GMT -5
The first part of your sentence is concerning to me. That sounds like you are suggesting we become Mr. Bojangles ... and I'm not talking about the fast food chain. Nothing of the sort. But the Black population in America is 13 percent. That's not going to be enough if you're seriously considering generating $$$ from TV revenue and corporate sponsorships. A better question is how do you get a segment of White America interested in HBCU Culture without "selling out"?
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Feb 28, 2022 17:04:37 GMT -5
A&T will be at the FBS level and there will be a FBS black conference that competes. We only lack one thing. Mindset. And that changed every day whether people want it too or not. Reasons why 1. NIL - I hate to admit I was so dead wrong about this .. but after further review this allows to seriously compete for top athletes that can topple FCS conferences and many mid major FBS conferences. Ain’t no way the likes of Troy Coastal Carolina Kent St etc can even come close to our viewership and attendance nor do they have the capacity to. The secret is out and the numbers don’t lie. The HBCU 80 year culture will not only get us there it will be enough to sustain us. 2. We are 3/4ths the way already there. Our endowment is larger than some that are already there and the trajectory is strong. We are already a R2 institution and soon will be R1. Graduating the most journalist, engineers etc. What other FCS program finished top 3 in anything like our track and field. 3. Competition- although HBCUs and others have finally figured out the huge capacity we have, the reality is there is a ceiling .. And all the elite hbcu chancellors who are visionaries understand this. The SWAC will sh us how to fill stadiums and leverage our culture - we will pave the way through elite competition and academics. Together the top 8 or so will unite. Everyone will be competing for first this top that, and it will benefit all of us. If I had a 4th it would be enrollment. By the time we would make such a move we are looking at enrollment at or around 20k.. that’s a big school! swag, i'm afraid that you have no idea what it takes to be successful at the fbs level. the things you listed have "very little" if anything at all to do with success at the fbs level. hbcu's will "never" out recruit fbs schools as long as we can only muster the funds that we've lived on for our entire history. none of the things you listed address our "athletic" funding. our endowment cannot be used for "athletics" and nil is independent of the university or the league a&t competes in. to be successful at the fbs level requires "sustainable" funding far exceeding what a&t or any other hbcu can muster. the athletic facilities at most fbs schools would put our facilities "to shame". schools like unc and nc state's women basketball facilities would put our best basketball facility (corbett) "to shame" and their women's facilities are not even their best facilities. how do expect an hbcu to win over recruits if we have "inferior" facilities, take buses instead of flying on long trips, stay in 2star hotels rather than 4star or 5star hotels, eat 3 piece kfc meals instead of well rounded nutritional meals, and i could go on and on...
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Post by Bornthrilla on Feb 28, 2022 17:15:18 GMT -5
The first part of your sentence is concerning to me. That sounds like you are suggesting we become Mr. Bojangles ... and I'm not talking about the fast food chain. Nothing of the sort. But the Black population in America is 13 percent. That's not going to be enough if you're seriously considering generating $$$ from TV revenue and corporate sponsorships. A better question is how do you get a segment of White America interested in HBCU Culture without "selling out"? I think you just stay true to yourself and dont worry about trying to cater to the mainstream. The value is in being authentic. People respect people who are unapologetically themselves. Cultural assimilation will only dilute the product. FUBU became a hundred million dollar company because its acronym and battle cry was 'For Us, By Us'. If it was 'For Them, By US' it wouldn't have hit the same.
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Post by DOOMS on Feb 28, 2022 17:18:11 GMT -5
It's possible if we compare ourselves to schools more on our level such as the Sun Belt Conference schools as opposed to comparing ourselves to power 5 schools. In actuality a third of the Sun Belt doesn't appear to compare to us at a glance.
That being typed I'm not optimistic given the way we continue to do things. I haven't harped on the stadium grass because I don't give a sheeet, but I will admit it's a mess and not FBS worthy. Neither is anything else in our athletic department. Not nearly enough staffing, physical plant is woeful, coaching staff save two or three aren't there, and compensation is laughable. Corporate sponsorship is close to invisible. We have a large number of kinks and glitches that would have to be fixed before we could seriously entertain such a thought. Check with me after the five year timeframe that Chancellor Martin is talking about before I take it seriously.
As far as keeping it real or selling out or whatever the hell, if you win everything else takes care of itself.
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Post by aggieswag on Mar 1, 2022 0:07:55 GMT -5
A&T will be at the FBS level and there will be a FBS black conference that competes. We only lack one thing. Mindset. And that changed every day whether people want it too or not. Reasons why 1. NIL - I hate to admit I was so dead wrong about this .. but after further review this allows to seriously compete for top athletes that can topple FCS conferences and many mid major FBS conferences. Ain’t no way the likes of Troy Coastal Carolina Kent St etc can even come close to our viewership and attendance nor do they have the capacity to. The secret is out and the numbers don’t lie. The HBCU 80 year culture will not only get us there it will be enough to sustain us. 2. We are 3/4ths the way already there. Our endowment is larger than some that are already there and the trajectory is strong. We are already a R2 institution and soon will be R1. Graduating the most journalist, engineers etc. What other FCS program finished top 3 in anything like our track and field. 3. Competition- although HBCUs and others have finally figured out the huge capacity we have, the reality is there is a ceiling .. And all the elite hbcu chancellors who are visionaries understand this. The SWAC will sh us how to fill stadiums and leverage our culture - we will pave the way through elite competition and academics. Together the top 8 or so will unite. Everyone will be competing for first this top that, and it will benefit all of us. If I had a 4th it would be enrollment. By the time we would make such a move we are looking at enrollment at or around 20k.. that’s a big school! swag, i'm afraid that you have no idea what it takes to be successful at the fbs level. the things you listed have "very little" if anything at all to do with success at the fbs level. hbcu's will "never" out recruit fbs schools as long as we can only muster the funds that we've lived on for our entire history. none of the things you listed address our "athletic" funding. our endowment cannot be used for "athletics" and nil is independent of the university or the league a&t competes in. to be successful at the fbs level requires "sustainable" funding far exceeding what a&t or any other hbcu can muster. the athletic facilities at most fbs schools would put our facilities "to shame". schools like unc and nc state's women basketball facilities would put our best basketball facility (corbett) "to shame" and their women's facilities are not even their best facilities. how do expect an hbcu to win over recruits if we have "inferior" facilities, take buses instead of flying on long trips, stay in 2star hotels rather than 4star or 5star hotels, eat 3 piece kfc meals instead of well rounded nutritional meals, and i could go on and on... Bro please stop thinking A&T is the school of the 1950s good grief. Our players don’t eat kfc - we don’t have a primitive budget.. I bet you would be shocked to know we fly to games now instead of taking long bus trips. In black and white you saw we came to the big south with the two hbcus having the largest endowment out of all schools in the conference and we still have a post like this. I don’t know what it’s going to take. But one thing is for sure the people in Dowdy is not paying any attention and moving forward and Thank God. If previous chancellors would have the mind set of some of the post I read on here we would still be playing basketball at Moore gymnasium .. We can do it for all the reasons I stated and more. Not only can we but we will. People thought we were crazy when we left the CIAA and we would not be able to sustain it. Well 50 years later it still exists. We can do anything we want to do.
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Maxell
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Post by Maxell on Mar 1, 2022 2:53:39 GMT -5
How do we transform HBCU culture into tangible dollars? This has no scientific basis whatsoever but is purely from lived experience. Among others, our culture has least four distinct elements: Rhythm, Food, Family, and Style. Rhythm - the foundation and uniqueness of our culture lies in our response to rhythms. Whether its our dances, our collective movement, our step shows, our bands, our cheers, our cheerleaders, our drumlines, or our music, they are all based on our natural reaction to rhythm. You either do it, want to do it, or you watch it in awe. You monetize it by making it contagious and prevalent. Then you brand it like we did with Club Corbett. There should movement in that building. You shouldn't be allowed to sit. The drummer should be playing all the time. Why don't we have Club Corbett branded gear? The BGMM should embed a certain songs into our tradition so that people come just to hear them play those songs like, 'Smash Something' and 'Before I Let Go'. You see that same rhythm is the reaction to songs like 'Swag Surfin''. Folk just naturally know what to do and it feels good and looks good. Food - The smells at HBCU tailgates and concessions are hard to match. Food is an experience for us, Folk should be coming to the game just for the food. It should be a vehicle for food trucks to transition into regional brands. Aggie Wings & Cafe should be a franchised marketing arm of the university and restaurant staple in North Carolina. There should be dishes developed at A&T that are unique enough that they become a tourist attraction like barbeque ribs in Kansas City. Family - we've heard over and over again from new students that it just felt like family. Why? Because you have people in decision making positions that don't just treat you like a number. The aunties, uncles, Mr. Johnson anem on campus remind you that they care. They young Black kids that have never felt that recognize when they experience it. My granddaughter told me the other day that she has only had one Black teacher in her life and she's in high school. We can make a family a point of emphasis in recruiting rather than an afterthought. Make parents think about that family atmosphere because that have no concerns about academics. Most Black folk don't get to feel what we feel but secretly they want to. Style - Everybody wants to be cool. Everybody tries emulate cool. Folk wish they were cool. Spike Lee's 'School Daze' opened up HBCU culture to the rest of the world. It is filled with color, clothing and character. For each one of these elements, branding is the key. The problem is you can't be scared. Just like McDonalds and Coke, you have to have at least two marketing strategies. One to base market and another to your secondary market. We can be a very high research institution AND a place where you can have a couple of thousand people from four different generations of Aggies doing the Electric Slide together. We are the ones that can sell this at the FBS level, but only if our on-field product is good enough to compete at the highest level. Anything less would be meaningless.
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Post by aggieswag on Mar 1, 2022 7:55:33 GMT -5
All of this ^^^ the only thing I would add is that it is absolutely scientific and can be traced with evidence. The very mere fact that hbcus lead in attendance and revenue at the FCS level for the past 25 years is all the scientific evidence you need. The reason for that is 1000% culture.
Homecoming sells out and it’s biggest money maker because of culture.
PWI conferences are looking to add us not because of our talent but because what our culture can do for their viewership and name recognition.
That’s why we have the most capacity in this conference and the new one. No one has culture like we have (that includes Hampton) and it’s because of that we will go to FBS and it’s because of culture it will prosper and be sustained.
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saabman
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Post by saabman on Mar 1, 2022 14:49:51 GMT -5
The first part of your sentence is concerning to me. That sounds like you are suggesting we become Mr. Bojangles ... and I'm not talking about the fast food chain. Nothing of the sort. But the Black population in America is 13 percent. That's not going to be enough if you're seriously considering generating $$$ from TV revenue and corporate sponsorships. A better question is how do you get a segment of White America interested in HBCU Culture without "selling out"? BINGO
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Mar 1, 2022 14:53:07 GMT -5
swag, i'm afraid that you have no idea what it takes to be successful at the fbs level. the things you listed have "very little" if anything at all to do with success at the fbs level. hbcu's will "never" out recruit fbs schools as long as we can only muster the funds that we've lived on for our entire history. none of the things you listed address our "athletic" funding. our endowment cannot be used for "athletics" and nil is independent of the university or the league a&t competes in. to be successful at the fbs level requires "sustainable" funding far exceeding what a&t or any other hbcu can muster. the athletic facilities at most fbs schools would put our facilities "to shame". schools like unc and nc state's women basketball facilities would put our best basketball facility (corbett) "to shame" and their women's facilities are not even their best facilities. how do expect an hbcu to win over recruits if we have "inferior" facilities, take buses instead of flying on long trips, stay in 2star hotels rather than 4star or 5star hotels, eat 3 piece kfc meals instead of well rounded nutritional meals, and i could go on and on... Bro please stop thinking A&T is the school of the 1950s good grief. Our players don’t eat kfc - we don’t have a primitive budget.. I bet you would be shocked to know we fly to games now instead of taking long bus trips. In black and white you saw we came to the big south with the two hbcus having the largest endowment out of all schools in the conference and we still have a post like this. I don’t know what it’s going to take. But one thing is for sure the people in Dowdy is not paying any attention and moving forward and Thank God. If previous chancellors would have the mind set of some of the post I read on here we would still be playing basketball at Moore gymnasium .. We can do it for all the reasons I stated and more. Not only can we but we will. People thought we were crazy when we left the CIAA and we would not be able to sustain it. Well 50 years later it still exists. We can do anything we want to do. that's your emotions speaking cuz nothing you stated explains how a&t can raise the kind of funding necessary to keep pace at the fbs level. for crying out loud, we still can't even keep our doggone stadium "grass green"! can't use endowment money on athletics, nil ain't got nothing to do with the university itself, competition and academics has "very little" if not nothing at all to do with competing at the fbs level. those are your "selling points" for a&t competing at the fbs level, none of them are "valid". additionally, it is not true that a&t flies on all long trips and certainly not as frequently as most fbs schools. further, you still have not explained how a&t will keep up with the facilities "arms race" at the fbs level. can't wait to hear your explanation for that!! mind you, the fbs facilities "arms race" is not just a one time thing, instead it runs continuously for an "indefinite" amount of time. how is a&t gonna do that? and you also haven't explained how a&t will level the playing field relative to access to "all" potential recruits, not just "minorities". how is an hbcu gonna recruit at the fbs level if it can't sign "the best" athletes of "ALL" ethnicities? hbcu's can get away with that at the fcs level, but not at the fbs level. and, unless your head was in the sand, surely you know that a&t has already expressed a desire to "reduce travel costs". well, clearly that ain't happening at the fbs level no matter what conference a&t could potentially belong to. if reducing travel costs is a "top priority" for any school, the fbs football is not for those schools. fbs is not a "fantasy league" that's free to all participants. it costs "MONEY", i mean lots of "MONEY" to sustain a competitive program at the fbs level and you have not explained where that "MONEY" is gonna come from. please share with us where that "MONEY" is gonna come from. checkout the fbs budgets of most fbs schools and compare it to ours...
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Post by Bornthrilla on Mar 1, 2022 15:05:37 GMT -5
One thing people need to keep in mind is that the other CAA schools are not just gonna to sit idle and wait for A&T to catch up.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2022 15:07:44 GMT -5
Bro please stop thinking A&T is the school of the 1950s good grief. Our players don’t eat kfc - we don’t have a primitive budget.. I bet you would be shocked to know we fly to games now instead of taking long bus trips. In black and white you saw we came to the big south with the two hbcus having the largest endowment out of all schools in the conference and we still have a post like this. I don’t know what it’s going to take. But one thing is for sure the people in Dowdy is not paying any attention and moving forward and Thank God. If previous chancellors would have the mind set of some of the post I read on here we would still be playing basketball at Moore gymnasium .. We can do it for all the reasons I stated and more. Not only can we but we will. People thought we were crazy when we left the CIAA and we would not be able to sustain it. Well 50 years later it still exists. We can do anything we want to do. that's your emotions speaking cuz nothing you stated explains how a&t can raise the kind of funding necessary to keep pace at the fbs level. for crying out loud, we still can't even keep our doggone stadium "grass green"! can't use endowment money on athletics, nil ain't got nothing to do with the university itself, competition and academics has "very little" if not nothing at all to do with competing at the fbs level. those are your "selling points" for a&t competing at the fbs level, none of them are "valid". additionally, it is not true that a&t flies on all long trips and certainly not as frequently as most fbs schools. further, you still have not explained how a&t will keep up with the facilities "arms race" at the fbs level. can't wait to hear your explanation for that!! mind you, the fbs facilities "arms race" is not just a one time thing, instead it runs continuously for an "indefinite" amount of time. how is a&t gonna do that? and you also haven't explained how a&t will level the playing field relative to access to "all" potential recruits, not just "minorities". how is an hbcu gonna recruit at the fbs level if it can't sign "the best" athletes of "ALL" ethnicities? hbcu's can get away with that at the fcs level, but not at the fbs level. and, unless your head was in the sand, surely you know that a&t has already expressed a desire to "reduce travel costs". well, clearly that ain't happening at the fbs level no matter what conference a&t could potentially belong to. if reducing travel costs is a "top priority" for any school, the fbs football is not for those schools. fbs is not a "fantasy league" that's free to all participants. it costs "MONEY", i mean lots of "MONEY" to sustain a competitive program at the fbs level and you have not explained where that "MONEY" is gonna come from. please share with us where that "MONEY" is gonna come from. checkout the fbs budgets of most fbs schools and compare it to ours... I can tell you right now most of this new funding is going to come from Student Athletic Fees and bonds/debt. Did you know about 3/4ths of our ~28,000 applications for Fall 2025 came from out of state? If this OOS enrollment cap goes through, which it most likely will at the next BOG meeting, we'll need to begin thinking about A&T with almost 20,000 students by 2030. Heck, 15,000 won't be out of the question by 2025. We'll have a budget pretty close to if not exceeding $25 million at that point. So I write all of this to say that enrollment will key for Athletics growth.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2022 15:09:47 GMT -5
One thing people need to keep in mind is that the other CAA schools are not just gonna to sit idle and wait for A&T to catch up. Nope. However, not many CAA schools will be able to fill the void James Madison left behind. But if A&T keeps growing with the enrollment, we're damn sure gonna try. Call me crazy but Alumni complaining about grass or other things may be a thing of the past much sooner than later. Oh heck, what am I saying; we're Aggies. We'll always have high standards and will always voice our opinions when things aren't right. But daarnit. We'll have much less to complain about if they can land this plane of goals they have.
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Mar 1, 2022 15:15:12 GMT -5
All of this ^^^ the only thing I would add is that it is absolutely scientific and can be traced with evidence. The very mere fact that hbcus lead in attendance and revenue at the FCS level for the past 25 years is all the scientific evidence you need. The reason for that is 1000% culture. Homecoming sells out and it’s biggest money maker because of culture. PWI conferences are looking to add us not because of our talent but because what our culture can do for their viewership and name recognition. That’s why we have the most capacity in this conference and the new one. No one has culture like we have (that includes Hampton) and it’s because of that we will go to FBS and it’s because of culture it will prosper and be sustained. you're comparing fcs hbcu attendance to the "wrong" schools if you wanna consider going fbs. see, most pwc fcs schools are basically the "little brothers" of most fbs schools, especially the bcs schools. the reason why pwc fcs schools "generally" lag behind fcs hbcu's in attendance is because pwc fcs schools "ARE NOT" the mainstream flagship pwc's. the mainstream flagship pwc's reside in the power 5 conferences, not fcs. whereas, most hbcu's "historically" have been the mainstream flagship programs for the african american community. those communities called their local hbcu "their own". historically for many, many years, african americans were not allowed to attend mainstream flagship pwc's nor their games. so we flocked to "our own" hbcu schools to enjoy football games in person, hbcu's were our mainstream flagship schools. that's why fcs and d2 hbcu's have better attendance than their fcs and d2 pwc peers. white folk don't flock to see elon, garner webb, or campbell football cuz they prefer attending games at the mainstream flagship pwc's like unc or nc state. other than jsu, attendance at hbcu football games "pales" in comparison to mainstream flagship pwc's and those are the schools you should be comparing hbcu attendance to cuz those are the fbs schools a&t would have to compete against...
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